This is a huge deal for our family (and I’m sure many others in the area) because many of the stores and restaurants that we frequent during the week are closed. Especially painful is my go-to delis for quick dinners are closed, meaning I have to plan better for meals when I am too tired to cook. In the US I had a freezer full of homemade meals that I could utilize when I didn’t want to cook. But I don’t have the convenience of a large freezer here, meaning I rely on delis and restaurants a lot more than I used to. Even after three years, I’m still struggling with this fact. I miss my ability to cook once and eat three or four meals from that effort! I do my best, but I still feel like I’m failing in this department a lot of the time.
In true Japanese fashion, the sections under construction are hidden behind tall white walls that contain dust and dampen the machinery noise. While this is typically great, my son loves to watch construction projects. So, it is sad that he can’t watch everyone work. If they had a comment box, I’d suggest that they put in little viewing windows for kiddos.
While the temporary closure of the shopping center obviously isn’t the end of the world, it is yet another inconvenience during a pretty stressful time. We’ve been told everything will reopen in mid-December. It can’t come soon enough.
Regardless of the construction, our life just keeps chugging along. After just three weeks of “vacation,” my son has returned to school. It was a bit sad for us because we didn’t go anywhere or do anything. He had so much homework to complete that we chipped away at it on a daily basis. We found solace in going to the park and even getting to join Piyo Piyo with friends a couple times (although I am happy to report we missed the day there was a huge thunderstorm and everyone got dumped on). We also tried to do fun things here and there, like going grape picking at a local farm. In fact, we’ve meant to go grape picking at this location near our house for the past two years, but have always been so busy we miss the short picking season. So, there are bright spots in not being able to go anywhere!
Each day this week, he has come home from school happy from seeing his friends and learning new things, but a sweaty mess from sitting in a hot classroom. They have air conditioners running all day, but the windows and doors are required to be open for air circulation and the cool air just races outside as quickly as can be.
This morning, I spent some time in the garden, pulling a couple tomato plants from planters (we already enjoyed all the tomatoes they had to offer), mixing in vermicompost (worm castings), and planting a fall crop of green beans. Hopefully they will give me a nice amount because we love green beans!
With the closure of the majority of the shopping center, I have decided to try to make more complete meals in the rice cooker. I’m hoping it takes some of the stress out of the “what’s for dinner” dilemma. It is taking a bit of research to find recipes, but when I find some that my family likes, I’ll be sure to share them.
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